Yahoo, continuing its acquisition spree – acquires two more companies

Yahoo’s CEO Marissa Mayer is at it again. This time with the acquisition of a Toronto based app maker ‘GhostBird’ and a free conference calling service ‘Rondee’ – two startups working in a completely different market. The company has acquired both the companies in less than 48 hours time – continuing its acquisition spree.

Yahoo on Wednesday announced that the company has bought a startup that makes picture-taking applications for iPhones. However, the amount of acquisition has been kept undisclosed at the moment. The move will help Yahoo to enhance its Flickr photo service. Keeping things undisclosed and out of spotlight, Yahoo secretly announced, saying “Today we acquired GhostBird for Flickr.Get ready to see your mobile photos in a whole new light”. GhostBird has created apps iOS photography apps like KitCam and PhotoForge2.

Rondee was a Palo Alto, California based free online conference calling service provider for SMEs, families, students and other businesses professionals. The company was founded in 2006.

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“We’re excited to join Yahoo!’s Small Business team and continue with Yahoo!’s goal of helping small businesses succeed online” (Rondee).

“Today we are thrilled to announce that Yahoo! has acquired GhostBird Software…Thank you for all of your support and feedback. We can’t wait to work with the Flickr team and help you capture even more beautiful moments for years to come” (GhostBird)

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It seems that Yahoo is not only wiping out small startups on its way, but also adding their ‘brain power’ to take Yahoo at greater heights. Both the startups are stopping their operations and joining Yahoo’s team to make it bigger and better.

Rondee is closing its operations for good, the startup said in an email to its customers today, as per another publication. GhostBird announced on its official website that its app will no longer be available to download on app market, and those who already have them downloaded, could keep using them, without any future updates, as the company is going to “work with the Flickr team”.

In less than a year, Marissa has successfully acquired a number of startups for Yahoo, something that people would not have expected from Yahoo earlier. Yahoo’s spree to hunt startups has landed into acquiring world’s successful mobile and Location based service providers. With Marissa doing one after another acquisition for Yahoo, it will be interesting to see, who are the other startups she has in her ‘to acquire’ list.

I am Dev, a New Delhi, India, based travel blogger and photographer. Shortly after my first nine to five job, I left that lifestyle behind, and with that everything that didn't fit in my backpack. It has been more than two years now since I've quit my job to travel, and during the process I've learned that this world is too big and interesting to stay at once place.